News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-11-24
RHYMES CHILDREN USE.

RHYMES CHILDREN USE,
A PROFESSOR DIscoURsEs ON
"EENY, MENEY, MINEY, MO"
What the Boy who Is "It" In Eng
Iish Is In other Languages
Use of Counting Out Rhymes.
The New York Sun says that digni'
fed professor, with bald head, began a
lecture before the New York Academy oi
Sciences in a Columbia College class
room as follows:
Eeny, meney, miney, mo,
Catch feller by the toe;
If he hOllerS let him 90.
Eney, meney, miney, mo,
One-ery, two-ery, zfccory zan,
Wickabo wockabo,
Crickabo, crockabo,
Tillery tan.
Entery, mentery, koutery, kali,
Apple seed and apple sail,
" ire, brier, Timber lock,
Three geese in a flock.
One flies east one flies west,
Eenery, teenery, tickery, teven,
I'll go marry ten or eleven;
Pin, pan, musky Dan,
Nineteen, twenty, twenty-one
The dignifed Professor was DR.. Fl.
Carrington Bolton, and his subject was
1.-The Contingent Rhymes of Children.
A Study in International Folk Lore"
Dr. Bolton was formerly professor in
Trinity College, Hartford. He explained
to the audience that these rhymes and
many others which he had picked up IN
twenty languages were used by children
in their games to determine who should
have the most undesirable part. A leader
repeated the doggerel rhyme, and the
child on whom the last word fell was set
free. Those remaining went through
the same ordeal until the last one re-
mained, who was 1T. This lit, DR..
Bolton said, is very polite expression
in the games of English-speaking chill
dren, for in German the one who is cit"
is called ''wolf'' instead of 'it;" in
japanese, "oui," or "little devil;" in
Malagasy, "bucca," or "leper," and in
Hawaiian, ''crazy one"
Professor Bolton said he had collected
contingent rhymes in twenty Ian
guases, civilized, h If civilized and bar
barous. Among these languages are the
Fenobscot Indian, japanese, Arabic,
Turkish, Malagasy, Bulgarian, Armenian,
Swedish, Italian, Russian, Portuguese,
Spanish and Basque. The Bulgarian
child rhymes, he said, were too pro-
nounced for repetition, but he recIted
examples in a dozen languages. In
ing-out rhymes, in German 269, and In
English 454 Altogether, by correspond
ing with scholars in all parts of the
world, he had obtained $50 contingent
rhymes.
One of the most common jingles In all
languages was the familiar
One, two, buckle my shoe;
Three four, shut the door;
Five, six, pick up sticks;
Seven, eight, lay them straight, etc.
There is fund of curious illusions in
the doggerel rhymes, DIR. Bolton con-
tinued. Here is one picked up after the
expedition of the Emperor Napoleon into
Russia:
The First Lieutenant was SO neat
He stopped in battle to wash his feet.
Another, which shows how ancient the
patter is, is:
Nebuchadnezzar, the King OF the Jews,
Slipped off his slippers and slipped on his
sloes
A modern instance showing local
coloring N the United States is:
There was little rattlesnake
He ate too much of wedding cake,
And made his little belly ache.
As to the origin of almost all of the
children's doggerel, Dr. Bolton said he
believed it descended from remote an
tiauity. The ancients were accustomed
to cast lots in the most solemn acts of
life. 1t was considered an appeal to the
Almighty. In the middle ages casting
lots was degraded to a superstition, and
charlatans used unmeaning formulas to
impose on the people, pretending to cure
diseases and forecast the future
well known doggcrel;
Eckerv ackery, ukery an
One-ery, two cry, etc. :,
The .seczerv" is Sanskirt for 'Ione.1
! Il is probable. Professor Bolton sald,
that ''ackery' was originally word
also.
There was only one corrupt Latin
verse that DR.. Bolton could remember.
1t is:
In, hoe, Domino, quod,
Ducks foot plump in the mud.
1t is probable that the jingles that the
children now use in games were former,
ly written on papers and hung around
the necks of people in the Middle Ages
to keep off the plague or to cure hydro
! phobia, gout and rheumatism.
l.
clined to improve on the old doggereI.
DR.. Bolton had interviewed good many
children in all languages, and found 1t
difficult to understand them. Conso-
nants were not preserved, and vowels
were of no account to the children. AS
an illustration of his difficulty, DR.. Boil
ton wrote this word on the blackboard:
PHTH-OLO-GN-YRRH
This was the way man named Turner
wrote his name and when asked to justify
his spelling, he said:
''Phthn i'll ''phthisic' is sounded ''t," ''olo'
in Colonel is sounded ugh gn' in
'gnaw'' is IN" and ''yrrh" in ''myrrh" is
sounded "r."
DR.. Bolton gave this example of the
manner in which children change the
rhymes In the Eastern States there is
Jingle which runs as follows:
John says to John how much are your geesei
John says to John twenty cents apiece;
John says to John that is too dear,
John says to John get out of here.
On the Pacific coast this has been
changed to:
Chin Chong, Chinaman, how much are your
geese!
Chin Chong, Chinaman, twenty cents apiece,
etc.
The latest discovery dug up by DR..
Bolton was this:
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
All good children go to heaven.
All bad children go below,
To keep company with Guiteau.
The Gulf Stream.
The water of the seas and the great
gulf lying between the West Indies, Flor
ida and the Mexican coast is compare.
lively shallow and undisturbed by mix
turc with the outer ocean. Constantly
under tropical sun, it becomes warmed
| to n hiph degree, and the shores and bot